Android O Switches Places Of Cellular & WiFi Signal Icons

The second developer preview of Android O switches places of the Wi-Fi and cellular signal status icons in the system status bar, as noted by several users running the latest experimental build of Google's upcoming operating system. Up until now, the Wi-Fi status icon was located to the left of the cellular signal one and was usually the first icon in the row if an alarm wasn't set. However, the places of the two icons have now been switched, while the Mountain View-based tech giant apparently also changed the behavior of the Wi-Fi icon. Limited testing revealed that the Wi-Fi icon doesn't disappear from the system status bar even when Wi-Fi connectivity is switched off and there's currently no way to remove it from the bar. This behavior didn't exist in the initial developer preview of Android O that the Alphabet-owned company released earlier this year, and given how no one from Google mentioned this phenomenon so far, it's possible that the grayed out icon is not a feature but simply a bug.

Refer to the gallery beneath this writing to see the new arrangement of the cellular signal and Wi-Fi status icons introduced in the latest developer preview of Android O, as well as the grayed out Wi-Fi icon that refuses to disappear from the status bar. Since these changes have only been noted in the latest experimental version of Android O, it's possible that they won't be present in any stable builds of the upcoming OS upgrade, especially since they are minor features that seemingly don't add anything to the user experience and are hence easy to scrap. It remains to be seen whether Google decides to stick with this new icon arrangement in the future, but an update on the situation should be available shortly.

The second developer preview of Android O was launched earlier this week, as soon as the company's annual Google I/O developer conference started on Wednesday. The next major version of Android will further improve device battery life by limiting background activities of apps, allow for categorization of notifications, and introduce a number of performance tweaks. First stable builds of Android O should start hitting Pixel and select Nexus devices in the coming months.

Dominik started at AndroidHeadlines in 2016 and is the Head Editor of the site today. He’s approaching his first full decade in the media industry, with his background being primarily in technology, gaming, and entertainment. These days, his focus is more on the political side of the tech game, as well as data privacy issues, with him looking at both of those through the prism of Android. Contact him at [email protected]